The First Gala
by Raichel Chu
Summary: An MLP FIM story. Remember Celestia saying that something went horribly wrong at the gala every year? That's even true of the first.


My little pony is © Lauren Faust. Not me.

Celestia sat in her palace, finally having a moment of peace in her hectic schedule. Filomena sat on her perch beside Celestia, as she always seemed to. Celestia, despite herself, was beginning to drift off as a message hit her on the head. She looked down and could see by the seal that this message was from her apprentice, Twilight Sparkle. The letter unrolled in front of her by means of her magic. _'Dear Princess Celestia,'_ she read, mumbling a little to herself, _'I apologize again for the fiasco at the Gala, even if it turned out to be one of the best nights of my life. It is comforting to know that we are not the first to cause a scene, but I apologize none the less,'_ Celestia smiled, they most certainly were not the first to cause a fiasco.

"Now girls," Celestia remembered their mother saying to her and Luna before the first Gala, "you need to be on your best behavior, understand?"

"Yes ma'am!" they had both said, eager to meet new ponies.

"Good. Now your father and I have to greet the guests. Celestia, stay with Luna, alright?" Celestia nodded. "Good girls." their mother had said, leaving the two of them alone in their gowns, made by the best seamstress in all of equestria, the unicorn Diamond Dust.

"Hey sis!" called Luna, already halfway down a hall, "Let's watch the guests from the balcony!"

"Are we allowed?" Celestia remembered asking, always concerned with what mother would think.

"It's our house! Why not?" said Luna, brightly. The little dare-devil.

"Alright..." Celestia had said, following behind her sister. From the balcony they were able to see every pony that came and went.

"Hey!" said Luna, pointing to a pony that was walking in, "That's professor stuck-up!"

"Luna!" said Celestia, scoldingly.

"And that's his wife! Madame Snooty!" Luna added, undeterred.

"Luna, stop it!" whispered Celestia, "We're gonna get in trouble!"

"And there's our dance teacher! Mademoiselle No-fun!"

"Luna!" hissed Celestia, through a snicker,

"And her husband, monsieur I-don't-have-time! Ooh! And baby Star-whine! And old man Hate-you-all, and the triplets! Ohwa, Tagoo, and Siam!"

"Luna!" said Celestia, trying and failing, not to laugh.

"There's mister Farts-a-lot, (glad we don't have beans at the buffet), oh! And there's mister Thinks-he-can-dance, and his wife, No-you-can't-dance, they should be fun to watch! Let's go watch them!"

"Huh?" said Celestia, as Luna bolted down the stairs, "Luna, wait!" Celestia galloped down the stairs after her sister, finally catching up to her in the dining hall, where she was crouched behind the buffet table. "What are you doing?" asked Celestia, walking up to her.

"Get down!" hissed Luna, pulling her sister down behind the long table. "We're watching to see if mister Thinks-he-can-dance is gonna start dancing."

"Um, and we have to hide behind this table because...?"

"We're spying on him. And it's more fun this way."

"Of course." said Celestia, rolling her eyes, "Why didn't I guess?"

"Cause' you're too focused on being a good girl." said Luna, plainly.

"Hey! Just because I-"

"Shh!" hissed Luna, "Someone's coming!" and she pulled Celestia under the table.

"Luna, this is ridiculous. Why are we hiding under a table?"

"Because we're under-cover!"

"Why can't I have a normal sister?" Celestia mumbled. Luna stuck her head out from under the table cloth,

"Coast is clear! Let's go!" and Luna walked out from under the table, the table cloth snagging on part of her dress.

"Luna," said Celestia, trying to keep her sister from walking away with the table setting, "Luna!" she said a little louder,

"Yeah?" said Luna, turning to face her big sister and pulling the middle of the table cloth off the table. "Oh, jeeze, I've got a bunch of table cloth caught on my dress! Why didn't you tell me?" Celestia did a face-hoof.

"That's what I was trying to tell you!"

"Oh. Well, either way I gotta, get, this, off." she said, trying to pull it off with her teeth, and causing one of the many now precariously placed platters to hit the ground. A loud crash echoed through the hall. Celestia undid the tangle with magic, but the whole room had turned to the two princesses, one biting her dress, the other halfway under a table. Celestia got out from under the table and went to stand next to her sister,

"Um, hello." said Celestia, to the crowd staring at them. Luna waved vigorously at the ponies. "It's um, a, uh, pleasure to see you all here. I hope you're having a good time..." she said, using magic in an attempt to fix the mess behind her, "Sorry about the commotion. Everything's fine now. Just, yeah. Hope you have a nice night!" and Celestia turned to face the buffet table, which was being attended to by some of the cooks. "Luna, no more spying for tonight, OK?" no reply, "Luna?" Luna was following the cooks into the kitchen. "Luna...!" Celestia growled more to herself than to her sister, who was out of earshot. Entering the kitchen, Celestia saw luna talking to one of the cooks, not doing anything harmful. She let out a sigh of relief. Looking up she noticed a faint glow coming from Luna's horn. Celestia immediately looked around the room for what her sister was controlling with magic. Her eyes caught a bottle of hot sauce glowing and flouting above the punch bowl. A slow drip of hot sauce was falling into the punch, drop by spicy drop. "Luna!" shouted Celestia. Luna turned, startled, and the hot sauce bottle fell with a splash into the punch bowl. "What do you think you're doing? We're supposed to be on our best behavior, remember! And last I checked that doesn't mean putting hot sauce in the punch! Now you apologize right now before you give some old pony a heart attack!"

"Uh, sis?" said Luna, quietly.

"Don't you 'sis' me!"

"The- the punch..."

"Don't you dare try and give me an excuse! Mom is gonna hear about this!" Celestia shouted.

"Yeah, she probably will..." said Luna looking around her sister, "they just took the punch out."

"What?" said Celestia, having a sudden sinking feeling, "What do you mean they just-?" she turned to see, through a window in the door, the punch being placed on the table in place of another now empty bowl, hot sauce bottle still afloat. "Uh-oh." said Celestia. "We've got to-" but Luna had already run out the door, and was lifting the punch bowl with magic, trying to get it out of reach of the other ponies. Celestia ran after her, and was almost the where her sister was when she tripped on her gown, and slid across the floor just as a pegasus pony took a sip of the punch. Propelled by the fire coming out of their mouth the pony shot back into a pillar, causing a domino effect. As the pillars tumbled Celestia lost control and slid into her sister, propelling them both into the buffet table, and under the punch, which crashed to the ground as they slid under it. After finally coming to a halt Celestia saw the scene around them. The long table spinning wildly on the smooth floor, the las few pillars crashing down, all the ponies galloping around in panic, a few having been caught by the buffet table, the head cook came up over Celestia's shoulder and whispered in her ear,

"Run." Celestia gave her sister a meaningful look and through the commotion they galloped out of the ballroom and upstairs to their room.

Celestia and Luna lay in their beds, staring fearfully up at the ceiling. They had bathed and hung up their dresses, now with a few tears and stains from the eventful evening, and were waiting for their mother to come up the stairs.

"Sis?" asked Luna, quietly.

"Yes?" said Celestia, knowing what her sister was going to ask.

"Are we gonna die?" her sister whimpered. Celestia paused for a moment, considering the evening,

"Maybe." the door creaked open, letting a little light into the room dark room.

"Girls?" said the soft voice of Queen Terra, their mother. There was a gulp from both beds. Terra smiled, "What's wrong?" she asked quietly, walking in and shutting the door behind her.

"You're gonna kill us, aren't you?" said Luna hiding her head under the covers. Between the moon and their night-light Terra could see the worried face of her eldest daughter.

"Now why would I do that?" she said in her ever-comforting voice.

"Because we ruined the Gala!" said Celestia,

"You didn't ruin the Gala." their mother assured them.

"We didn't?" squeaked Luna, poking her head out from under the covers.

"Of course not." said Terra, "You made it better!"

"We did?" said Celestia, unbelieving.

"As Queen and ruler of Equestria," said Terra, sitting up regally, "I hereby decree that the Grand Galloping Gala will be a complete and utter failure if something does not go horribly wrong!"

"Yay!" Luna had shouted happily, bouncing on the bed.

"Sister?" said a quiet voice. Celestia looked up to see Luna poking her head through the door,

"Hello, Luna." said Celestia, smiling, "Come in."

"What cha' thinking 'bout?"

"Oh, the past." said Celestia, as luna came and sat down next to her.

"Is that a letter from Twilight?" said Luna, brightening.

"Yes."

"She and her friends destroyed the ballroom this year, huh?"

"Indeed they did." said Celestia, smiling.


End file.
